It won't be long before "Outlander" season 3 premieres in 2017.

"Outlander" executive producer Matt Roberts confirmed that the popular time-travel drama is going to return on Starz a bit sooner than expected, so fans might have a shorter countdown next year.

 "We haven't stopped working, and we just went straight over from season 2 to season 3," he said. He added that the team behind the show is now preparing for the next installment.

"'Outlander' is a beast of a show to produce, so if we took a normal break, a regular hiatus like a normal show, we would already be behind. Now the fans can have it sooner than what they think. The Droughtlander won't be as long as they expect," he said.

While "Outlander" season 2 is shorter by three episodes than season 1, the management has decided to air all the 13 episodes consecutively on Starz through July instead of dividing it with a six-month hiatus. Roberts also explained that even if the next installment premieres in April 2017, the break would only last for nine months.

"Outlander" season 2 ends on July 2, but the decision of Starz to renew the series for two more seasons gives fans the assurance that their favorite drama isn't fizzling out anytime soon.

As to the subject of whether the series will expand its universe or not, Roberts said they have not decided on that yet.

"Oddly enough, we always joke about spinoffs, whether it's Lord John or Black Jack or this person or that person, because there is just so much material," he said.

"We haven't really discussed it seriously if we could do that, but that would be something for Starz to order before we could start talking about it seriously. But we know there's a whole line of books that Diana wrote about just that one character, so it was great to have his introduction in my script," he added.

"Outlander" season 2 airs every Saturday, 9:00 P.M. on Starz.